Death by (pain au) chocolat

I want to apologize to my fans who had to wait for a few extra, antagonizing days for this blog post. It’s been a busy week, and I’m riding high on the fam visit (minus Meg and Ben). But I get ahead of myself- that’s next week’s post.

This past weekend I went to Paris for the first time that I can remember, second time in my life. But in the week leading up to the trip I did some fun stuff too. On Monday my class visited Ridley Road market, where I had some AMAZING falafel. If you’ve never given Mediterranean food a chance, let me put you onto something. I can’t stop coming back to it. Then, at night, I went to a play called Black Love, which had a large cast of 3 people who sure could sing well. It was a pretty interesting play. Tuesday was what I would call “Ben day.” After my morning class, I spent the day with myself, getting a free haircut (had to sharpen up for the upcoming trip), visiting sites and taking myself out to dinner. My favorite part of the day was my visit to St. Dunstan in the East, a church first built in the 10th century that has since been destroyed and has now been turned into a garden amongst what remains. Soon after this, I walked across Tower Bridge for the first time, and I can’t help but continually return to it because of its beauty.

And then I was suddenly in Paris on Thursday. After waking up at 4 in the morning and leaving on our Eurostar train at 7, we arrived in the city at 10:30 am (Paris time). My friends and I wasted no time finding the nearest cafe and ordering our first croissants and pain au chocolats. The croissant was great but the pain au chocolat emotionally put me in pain because of the despair it brought me when I had finished. But there was no time to cry; I had an ambitious day ahead of me. Although it poured the entire first day, I still got a lot done. Riley and Adam were good sports and followed me around to my first destination: home. Although I don’t remember it, we walked from Place de la Concorde, past La Madeleine, down Rue Tronchet to apartment #27. Sure, I don’t remember it, but it just felt special all the same. I can only imagine how amazing it must have been for Mom, Dad, Megan and Amber. After my reunion, we went to the terrace of Galeries Lafayette, where my brolly almost flew away in the rain. Despite the weather doing its best to deter us, we got some great pictures of the city. Then we made a stop to Palais Garnier, the opera house, before making our way to Musee d’Orsay (and making a stop for some macarons at Laduree on the way). The museum was amazing; it consists of Monet and Van Gogh galore, but, despite its glorious collection, the highlight is honestly the old train station itself.

After the museum, we met back up with the group of other AIFS students for a boat ride along the Seine. Because it was raining, the windows were fogged up and you couldn’t see much, but we did make the excruciating journey to the roof as we passed the Eiffel Tower. With the top stuck in the clouds, it was a sight to see. After the boat ride, the 3 of us and our friend Kahmala went to dinner, where we splurged on the 19 euro starter, meal and dessert deal. I tried escargot (good for a one-time try), lamb (yummy) and a dessert which I did not order but was good nonetheless. Then, once we got home, I took a nice, hot shower and crashed.

But sleep is for the weak. The next day we had a 3 hour bus tour at 9 in the morning, so I got up early for the hotel breakfast. Consisting of pain au chocolat, croissants and baguettes, it couldn’t have felt any more French. I had 2 of each and brought one pain au chocolat for the road. The tour was great, as we saw all the big sights and even stopped at the Pantheon and the Eiffel Tower. I had a nice photo shoot in front of the Tower and was satisfied. But I knew I’d be back later (foreshadowing, by the way). After the tour, we stopped for lunch at a sandwich shop and then made our way to the Louvre for our 1:30 pm entrance. The Louvre was overwhelming, with paintings and sculptures to fill, well, a very large museum. I laid my eyes upon the Mona Lisa and quite enjoyed Liberty Leading the People, the inspiration for the best musical ever made, Les Mis (which I saw yesterday. 10/10). After some more perusing and admiring of architecture inside, I decided to admire the architecture from outside. The glass pyramid is astounding in itself, and it’s here I took my first recreation of a picture from nearly 20 years ago. Saturday was a much more beautiful day, and I spent as much of the rest of it outside as I could.

After the Louvre, I walked through the Jardin des Tuileries, which was a most beautiful park. This led to the Champs-Elysees, where I got my first (and only) Paul bakery pain au chocolat. I can see why Mom and Dad fell in love with it. Walking along the street, eating my pastry, I eventually made it to the Arc de Triomphe, the first of 2 arches I saw. Then, I went back to the hotel to rest; otherwise, I would have been a zombie for the remainder of the night. After some much needed lying down, I met Riley and Adam for dinner at Bouillon Julien, next to the second arch I saw, the Porte Saint-Denis (which is the first Parisian arch to be built). Dinner was good, as I tried their namesake dish accompanied by an aperol spritz (a tad overrated, if I may say so, but I’ll have to try it again to confirm). After dinner, Riley and I headed down to the Eiffel Tower to see it lit up at night. We ended up staying for an hour and a half, as we caught up with other people from the program. Therefore, we saw it twinkle at both 11:00 pm and midnight, which made for an absolutely astounding view. I can’t even begin to describe its beauty, but I can testify with 100% certainty that Remy from Ratatouille and his 2 rat friends who accompanied our fine evening absolutely made the night that much more special. Now I’m just waiting for him to text me back and invite me over for a meal.

The last morning, I treated myself to a nice plate of hotel breakfast carbs once again. Then, I went over to one of the two islands along the Seine to see Sainte-Chapelle and Notre Dame. Saint-Chapelle was beautiful (how many times am I allowed to say that word without it losing its meaning? This is where thesaurus.com comes in handy). But really, the stained glass is unmatched and I’m so grateful Mom and

Dad listed it as a must-do. Unfortunately, Notre Dame is not as magnificent as it once was because of the fire, and we were limited to looking at it from about half a football pitch out. After a quick stop to look, we went to Place des Vosges (another nice square) before heading to Montmartre. At Montmartre, we took in both Sacre-Coeur and another nice city view. It’s here where I got a crepe, beurre-sucre avec banane. I should’ve taken up the hobby of crepe-eating earlier, as I found myself to be quite good at it. We then walked around the area, which was very colorful and had lots of cute little streets and shops. However, we had to hurry, as our train back to London departed shortly.

I absolutely loved Paris and there is no doubt in my mind that I’ll return one day. I would have been more upset to leave, but I had a family waiting for me back at St. Pancras International. I’m sure their departure from Paris when I was 1 years old was much more difficult than mine. However, I hope they were able to live vicariously through me when I told them of my trip at a British pub after our reunion. But more on their visit later (in fact, I’m creating the tale of it now, as we still have 4 days left!).

Wow, I’m getting pretty bad at these short recaps.

Au revoir